ConsenSys completes public launch of zkEVM Linea

ConsenSys has completed the launch of its Ethereum scaling rollup Linea, onboarding over 150 partners and bridging more than $26 million in Ether (ETH) to date.

Linea went live with select partners onboarded to the alpha mainnet in July 2023, allowing developers to migrate existing decentralized applications (DApps) from Ethereum’s mainnet or other scaling solutions. The zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) is a layer-2 scaling solution that provides lower transaction costs and higher throughput for DApps running in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Cointelegraph spoke exclusively to Linea senior product manager Declan Fox to unpack major milestones since the zkEVM’s launch. Fox highlighted Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s belief that zero-knowledge rollups (ZK-rollups) would prove crucial in the operation of the wider Ethereum ecosystem as Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge (zk-SNARK) technology improves.

“Bytecode-compatible zkEVMs, like Linea, provide stronger security guarantees than existing scaling solutions and maintain the full network effects of the EVM — the most adopted smart contract execution environment.”

According to Fox, Linea’s mainnet facilitates trustless bridging between Ethereum and layer 2 in minutes, creating a capital-efficient environment for liquidity to be tied into rollups. Linea also addresses the disadvantages of optimistic rollup solutions that have a seven-day withdrawal confirmation time.

“Much like how countries without foreign exchange control in the financial markets are more competitive, zkEVM solutions will soon outperform optimistic solutions in terms of user and liquidity acquisition.”

Fox added that Linea supports a variety of Web3 use cases, while its low transaction costs and high throughput makes it particularly useful for decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.

“Linea is seamless for existing DeFi protocols and DApp developers to build composable money legos that work together to create innovative user experiences.”

Linea also features default integration with ConsenSys’ browser-based MetaMask wallet, allowing DApps on the network to access millions of users across the ecosystem.

Fox also noted that the potential for the Linea ecosystem is “boundless,” reflecting on the capabilities of ZK-rollup technology to provide lower costs, higher throughput and Ethereum-based security while providing a capital-efficient bridge to the layer-1 mainnet.

The public release also saw Linea’s ERC-20 token bridge go live, allowing ERC-20 tokens — like stablecoins, liquid staking ETH and memecoins — to be bridged and accessible through the scaling solution.

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